A total of 79,246 students have earned scholarships through the Primary Scholarship Examination, with 32,965 securing Talentpool awards and 46,281 receiving General scholarships, Education Minister Ehsanul Hoque Milon announced on Sunday.

Speaking at a press briefing held at the International Mother Language Institute in the capital, the minister detailed that the successful cohort comprises 35,892 boys, making up 45.29 percent, and 43,354 girls, representing 54.71 percent of the total recipients.

He noted that the Primary Scholarship Examination-2025 took place in April this year for fifth-grade students, with the explicit aim of identifying and recognizing academic excellence and encouraging educational institutions to help build a knowledge-based generation.

The nationwide examination saw participation from more than 640,000 students, including roughly 550,000 from government primary schools and about 90,000 from non-government primary schools and kindergartens.

Overall, 78,810 educational institutions took part, consisting of 65,605 government primary schools and 13,205 non-government schools.

Total registered candidates reached 645,041, which included 256,117 boys and 388,924 girls.

From that registered pool, 419,982 students actually appeared for the examination, representing 65.11 percent of all registered candidates—specifically 344,127 students from government schools, or 62.01 percent of registered candidates in that category, and 75,855 students from non-government institutions, or 84.16 percent. Among the actual examinees, 166,641 were boys at 39.68 percent and 253,341 were girls at 60.32 percent.

Under the framework of the Primary Scholarship Examination Policy-2026, the government had originally planned to award 82,500 scholarships nationwide, consisting of 33,000 Talentpool scholarships and 49,500 General scholarships.

For Talentpool awards, 80 percent of the quota was assigned to government primary school students while 20 percent went to non-government institution students.

Out of the 49,500 General scholarships, 39,600 were allocated to government primary schools based on a distribution of five scholarships for each union and ward—two for boys, two for girls, and one based purely on merit—with the remaining 20 percent reserved for non-government institution students at the upazila level.

Breaking down the final distribution of awardees, the Talentpool recipients include 26,375 from government primary schools and 6,590 from non-government institutions, whereas the 46,281 General scholarship recipients comprise 36,420 from government schools and 9,861 from non-government schools.

Concluding the briefing, the minister stated that the scholarship results have already started being uploaded at the Directorate of Primary Education in Mirpur, and the entire publication process is expected to be completed within the next two to three hours.